Prior art computers communicate or transmit data through communication channels accessed through ports. A port is an endpoint to a logical connection. Communication between computers is achieved by forwarding data to a particular address, such as an IP address, on a predefined port number. Each port has a port number and the port number identifies what type of port each port is. For example, port 80 is used for HTTP traffic. Ports are utilized in several different protocol networks including TCP/IP and UDP networks.
When a first application running on a first computer transmits data directed to a second application on a second computer, the first application will transmit the data directed at a predefined port to be received by the second computer and application. If the port is unknown, the data cannot be forwarded. Further, if a first application is currently listening on a given port, a second application that listens on the same port will fail because the port is already in use. The port cannot be initialized for listening by the second application if the port is already in use by the first application.